The former Deutsche Bank executive Henry Cai has raised $650 million for a new private equity fund that will invest in manufacturing and industrial firms in German-speaking countries interested in expanding in China.

Cai, who was Deutsche’s Asia-Pacific chairman of corporate finance, expects to reach $1 billion for the new fund by the end of the year, according to Bloomberg. Investors from the Middle East and Europe are expected to come in for the remainder, while sovereign wealth fund China Investment Corp. and several global insurance companies have already committed to the new vehicle.

Cai’s AGIC Group, which stands for Asia German Industrial Promotion Capital, will invest in primarily Mittlestand firms - small and midsize companies in German-speaking areas - that are keen to expand into China, and connect them with Chinese firms with whom they can create partnerships.

Cai is well acquainted with cross-border corporate activity between western nations and China, having been involved in the initial surge of IPOs of Chinese companies in the late 1990s and working with the China State Council’s IPO team to list the first group of state-run firms in Hong Kong in the early 1990s.

Cai left Deutsche Bank in February of this year. Before joining Deutsche, he was chairman of Asian investment banking at UBS.